can somebody help a complete computer illiterate?

[John D Harris]

I was wondering if anybody out there would be so kind as to help me. I admit I know squat about computers, I can push the button on the front of my computer to turn it on, Click on start>go to programs>black isle> BGII soa/tob and play the game but that is about it. My computer knowledege in a nut shell, Oh yeah I can click on that funky e and get to IW

I've been surfing and came across this program WeiDU it allows you to made mods and create stuff for BGII, I've looked at several Tuts. and they do a good job of explaining how the program works. It sounds great. I'd like to get my feet wet and try playing around with the program. The problem I'm having is the tuts tell you how to swim, but I don't even know how to get to the lake. If there is anybody that has used this program, or seen it would you please give me a simple step by step on how to start. I'm not looking to make a mod I just want to play with WeiDU It looks like it could have some neat possibilities. If you can help me please keep it simple. Thanks John D.

[realbinky]

JohnD, what exactly is the question?

[John D Harris]

That's the problem I'm not sure what the question is. I'd like to know how to open WeiDU, I know it is a line command but that doesn't mean squat to me.What is a DOS prompt and where to you go to find it?

[Sir Kenyth]

Slow down there big guy! You're jumping into the deep end, stay in the shallows for a little while with some water wings! You should probably learn the basics of computers and software before you go trying to program. You'll save yourself a lot of frustration and possible file damage. You need to fully understand the filing system used on the hard drive. You need to understand directory structure and file naming. You need to understand hardware types and settings. You need to be adept at finding, moving, copying and re-naming files. Any material used to train for A+ certification is an excellent place to start. Just using the windows help files and going through them is a great way to learn about the operating system. There's also resources on the internet. Crawl, walk, then run. When I first started back in the early 90's with my 486SX25, I jumped into the Autoexec.bat and config.sys files once I got tired of solitaire. Boy did it ever get ugly before it got better! I took a self inflicted crash course in computers during two late-nighters in a row! [img]graemlins/goodmorning.gif[/img]

[andrewas]

The DOS prompt is what we used to use before Windows was inflicted on us. Its legacy software for the most part, several of its best features dont work anymore (piping for instance, *NIX OSes all have it, but DOS lost it years ago ). Its also the fastest way to get things done if you know exactly how your computers organised, what you want to do and how you do it.

You get into the DOS prompt by going into start->run->"command"

Then either you use the CD command to get to the weiDU folder, or you open it up in windows and then run the command program to start in that folder. Type the given command and your into the program. From there I dont know, never used weiDU.

From what I understand, weiDU lets you program at the lowest level the Infinity Engine will understand - therefore you can in theory make anything the original designers could. Immensely powerful, but not exactly easy.

Im not familiar with this scripting language, but it isnt very complicated. Near english syntax. Shoudnt be to hard to learn to use it. Just follow tutorials and pay attention to what their doing and why their doing it.

Since weiDU isnt concerned with operating system details, you are not likely to damage any files but the ones your working on. Therefore, take backups of those files. At a guess you need to make a copy of dialogue.tlk and any files you plan to open.

[Harkoliar]

i have to tell you that you cant from a comp illiterate jump and becoming a computer programer the next day. you should try familiarizing first yourself with windows and such before going to dos before going to edit things in the infinity engine (like bg2) [img]smile.gif[/img] .

here is the weimer forum
http://forums.fwstudios.net/index.ph...04&act=SF&f=49
and just post around (you can post even though you are unregisterd) and ask some help to those people who know those stuff there.

[John D Harris]

Thanks guys,
Sir Kenyth, don't worry I'm not going to jump into the deep end, water wings "Hale"! I'm going to need several full body suit life preservers I'm wanting to learn get my feet wet, but "Hale" I don't even know ever the lake is

Andrewas, Thanks I think you showed me the road to the lake

Harklinor, I'm not trying to become a computer programer, I passed that up years ago inorder to become an Illustrator. I'm not looking to make any quatum leaps here I'm just wanting to learn something new. It sure beats the "Hale" of of prime time TV and at my age I have to keep trying to expland my mind or it colaspes

[Vaskez]

Weidu is for making dialogs and kits etc for baldur's gate 2 and other IE games.
THis program is for advanced users. If you want to make dialogues, I suggest you use Infinity Dialogue Utility. To make kits use one of the kit editors. You don't actually NEED weidu for any of these things. All the programs you need ar at www.teambg.com under tools and as I say all the other programs are much more user friendly and straight-forward to use. Also, if you ask on the teambg forums you are definitely going to get help with weidu and any other program whereas, here, people don't even know what it is.

Alos, andrewas, hehe it'd be good if we COULD make anything the developers can but unfortunately that's not the case. There are still many unknown bits in all file formats. However, we have got to the stage a while ago now where we can make completely new games with the infinity engine. Like I'm doing now....slowly....

[ 01-08-2003, 10:15 AM: Message edited by: Vaskez ]

[John D Harris]

Thanks Vaskez,
IDU maybe more what I'm looking for, I'm just kinda wanting to play with it and see what kind of possiblities there are out there.

[Vaskez]

Originally posted by John D Harris: Thanks Vaskez, IDU maybe more what I'm looking for, I'm just kinda wanting to play with it and see what kind of possiblities there are out there.

With IDU you can make dialogues just like the ones made by the developers and no one will tell the difference. WEIDU just makes it faster after you've learnt the language. Obviously, it's easier if you're familiar with command-line interfaces. The main thing to understand about command-lines is that you usually type the name of executable files to execute them. And, you put a space after the file name and then whatever you type after that is taken as a command line argument/parameter which is used by the program. Each argument must be seperate by a space. This is very general and goes for all old-style command line parameter using programs.